The game of craps in California casinos doesn’t use dice. This might be confusing to some of my readers, so I thought I’d write a blog post about California craps games.

1. Playing Craps With Cards
2. Play Craps With Cards
3. How To Win Playing Craps
4. Best Strategy For Playing Craps
5. Playing Craps V2
6. Playing Craps Rules

This post examines how craps in California is played and why the odds aren’t really any different — even though they’re using a different mechanism to arrive at the outcomes.

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Also, if you love “shooting dice,” you might want to play craps in a different state.

You can play craps online for free, no matter which state you live in. And when you play for real money, you’ll get a 350% deposit bonus on your first deposit. WildVegasCasino.

Craps in California Is Played with Playing Cards, Not Dice

In some states, it’s illegal to use certain devices for gambling purposes. Until recently, Oklahoma didn’t allow spinning wheels or dice, but it did allow cards. They’ve recently changed their laws regarding that, so now you can shoot dice and play roulette in Oklahoma just like everywhere else.

But California still doesn’t allow casinos to use dice.

They still want to offer craps, though, so they use a deck of cards as a workaround.

You can use a deck of cards to duplicate the odds in a craps game in 2 different ways:

The more intuitive way for most players to understand is to have the ace, 2, 3, 4, 5, and 6 of one suit represent one of the 2 dice, and to have the same set of cards for another suit represent the 2nd of those 2 dice.

You still have the same probability for each of the 2 “dice” this way — each number comes up 1 out of 6 times.

You also have the same bell curve that you’d see when rolling a pair of dice.

The other way is to have a deck consisting of 36 cards, each of which represents a possible outcome of a die roll. This is the method that the Winstar used until recently.

Why Are There 36 Possible Outcomes in California Craps?

There are 36 possible outcomes in craps of all kinds, not just in California craps. Understanding that is the key to understanding how craps probability works.

You only have 11 possible totals in craps:

1. 2
2. 3
3. 4
4. 5
5. 6
6. 7
7. 8
8. 9
9. 10
10. 11
11. 12

But some totals can happen in multiple ways.

For example, a total of 2 can only happen in one way — you have to roll a 1 on the first die and also roll a 1 on the 2nd die.

That’s also true for rolling a 12 — you have to roll a 6 on each die, and there’s only one way to do that.

But look at the probability of rolling a 3. You have 2 ways you can get an outcome of 3:

You can roll a 1 and a 2 OR you can roll a 2 and a 1.

It might not be immediately or intuitively obvious why that’s 2 different ways of accomplishing this, but that’s why you have a bell curve in craps.

The least likely totals are 2 and 12.

The totals of 3 and 11 are the next least likely outcomes.

Then 4 and 10.

And then 5 and 9.

Then 6 and 8.

Finally, the most common outcome is 7 — you have the following ways of getting a 7 on a roll of two dice:

1. 1, 6
2. 2, 5
3. 3, 4
4. 4, 3
5. 5, 2
6. 6, 1

No other combination of dice has that many possibilities.

An Example of California Craps at the Pala Casino

The Pala Casino uses a deck of 36 cards, each one of which is mapped to a combination of 2 dice. The craps dealer deals 2 cards, one in a blue box and one in a red box.

The shooter still gets to roll dice in this version. One of the dice is blue, the other, red.

The blue die has a 2 and a 3 on it — and no other numbers.

The red die has a 1 and a 4 on it — and no other numbers.

The die with the higher number determines which card determines the outcome of the throw.

It’s funny how the casino still uses dice, but they’ve added the cards to randomize the outcome for legal reasons. The Pala Casino’s version of craps probably “feels” more like craps than other versions.

You could, in fact, just draw a card from either of those decks and have an outcome in line with the probabilities involved in craps.

But that would make the gameplay so fast that it wouldn’t feel much like craps at all.

Craps at the Viejas Casino

When you play craps at the Viejas Casino, NO dice are used for any reason. This version of craps isn’t even played at a craps table. Instead, it’s played at a table that looks more like a blackjack table.

This version of craps uses 264 playing cards numbered 1 through 6 dealt from a continuous shuffling machine. The cards get put back into the shuffler after every roll.

But there’s a catch with the Viegas Casino craps:

Some of cards remain in the shuffle’s chute after each deal, so multiple rolls are dealt at one time.

What does this mean, probability-wise?

It slightly changes the odds by removing some of the possible outcomes. You just don’t know which outcomes have been removed.

The don’t pass bet becomes a better bet than it already is, so if you ever play at the Viejas Casino, stick with being a wrong bettor.

Why Are California Casinos Like This?

My daughters sometimes ask me, “Dad, why are you like this?”

They’re usually frustrated with me, and I get that. I’m frustrating, as people who are from a different generation often are.

But why are California casinos the way they are?

California passed a constitutional amendment in 2000 legalizing gambling on American Indian land. Each tribe negotiates its own arrangement (a “compact”) with the state government regarding what games and activities they can offer.

Some types of gambling are more acceptable than others.

California law is specific about one thing, though:

You can’t determine game results using dice. This would seem to eliminate craps because this law applies to Indian casinos.

The only way California casinos can offer craps at all is to modify their versions of the game to use playing cards instead of just dice. Even in casinos that allow the players to throw the dice, the outcome of the dice only determines which cards get drawn.

It’s a weird loophole. Casinos can use dice to determine part of the outcome, but the playing cards are like a buffer that keeps the dice from determining the final outcome.

Can You Count Cards in California Craps?

The first question that springs to my mind when I find out about card-game-based craps is whether I can get an edge at the game by counting cards.

This would be possible if you didn’t face a casino that shuffles the deck after every “roll of the dice.”

The way card counting works in blackjack is by keeping track of which cards have been dealt in a general way — high versus low. Aces and 10s in blackjack are considered high cards, and they’re better for the player. When a lot of them have already been played relative to the lower valued cards, you should bet the minimum.

But when a lot of low cards have been played when compared to the high cards, it’s time to raise your bets.

In other words, you don’t keep up with specific cards that have been played or that are left in the deck.

Theoretically, if you found a casino that didn’t shuffle the deck every time a card got played, you might be able to get an edge by betting one way or the other.

Imagine, if you will, a huge deck of cards where most of the cards that resulted in a 7 were already gone from the deck.

Would you know which bet would offer you an advantage in that situation?

That’s what I thought.

What’s the House Edge for Craps in California?

In Oklahoma, the casinos charge an ante for playing table games. That ante increases the house edge dramatically, but it’s based on how much you’re betting on each round. Usually, the bigger your bets are, the less of an effect the ante has on the house edge.

As far as I know, though, California craps doesn’t require an ante.

Since the odds of getting all the various results at a craps game in California are the same as they would be if you were rolling 2 dice, the house edge is the same, too.

In other words, stick with the pass, don’t pass, come, don’t come, and odds bets. All those bets have a house edge of less than 1.5%.

And you also want to avoid the prop bets that are also available in card-game-based craps. Stick with the simple, boring bets because those are the bets offering the best odds for the player.

In fact, the house edge on many of these proposition bets at the craps table is in excess of 10% and closes in on 20% in some instances.

You don’t need to play games with such lousy odds, ever — in California, online, or anywhere else.

Finally

I hope I answered all your questions about craps in California. If I left anything out, or if you have something you’d like to add, I’d love to hear from you in the comments section.

For decades, craps was the most popular table game in any casino. Its popularity was usurped by blackjack in the 1960s with the rise of both basic strategy and card counting, but craps remains one of the big 3 table games in any casino:

1. Blackjack
2. Craps
3. Roulette

But in Oklahoma, casinos aren’t allowed to use dice to power games of chance. The laws restrict table games to the use of playing cards to generate random results. Someone somewhere figured out how to create a craps game that uses cards instead of dice and maintains the same bets and probability.

The playing cards determine the results, which are then displayed using animated dice on a television monitor above the craps table. It would be easy to think that a random number generator computer program is creating those results, like it would with an online casino, but if you pay attention, you can watch the dealers actually drawing and manipulating the cards.

They use a scanner to read the cards, and that scanner converts those cards into the corresponding dice totals.

The purpose of this post is to explain how to play craps with playing cards in Oklahoma.

The Basics of Craps in General

Whether you’re playing street craps or casino craps, the basics of the game are the same. You start with a “shooter,” someone who rolls the dice. The game is played in “rounds,” and each round begins with a roll of the dice called the “come-out roll.”

Most people bet “with the shooter” or “with the dice.” This is an even-money bet called the “pass line bet.” It wins if the dice succeed, and it loses if the dice lose. Winning and losing are defined as follows:

On the come-out roll, if the shooter rolls a 7 or an 11, the dice immediately succeed, and the pass line bet pays off at even money.

But if the shooter rolls a 2, 3, or 12, the dice immediately fail, and the pass line bet loses. A new shooter starts a new round after this.

If the shooter rolls any other possible total, a “point” is “set”. The possible points are:

• 4
• 5
• 6
• 8
• 9
• 10

The shooter’s goal on subsequent rolls is to roll the point number again before rolling a 7. If he achieves this goal, the pass line bet pays off at even money. If he rolls a 7 first, he fails, and the pass line bet loses.

That’s the basic game in a nutshell. I know it seems more complicated than that when you’re watching, but that’s because there are so many possible bets you can make. Most of the bets at the craps table are awful for the player, though. You should just skip them.

One of the bets, though—the odds bet—is special. It deserves its own section:

The Odds Bet in Craps

The house has a mathematical advantage on every bet in the casino. The pass line in craps is no different. In fact, we know the exact mathematical edge the casino enjoys on this bet—it’s 1.41%.

When a point is set during a round of craps, though, another bet becomes available that has no house edge. This bet pays off at the same odds as of winning. It’s called the odds bet.

The odds bet is placed behind your original pass line bet. The amount is a multiple of your original bet. Casinos place a maximum amount on this bet as a multiple of your initial bet.

2X is as common a max as you’ll see, which means if you bet $5 on the pass line, you can make up to a $10 bet on the odds bet. If you placed a $10 pass line bet, you can bet $20 on the odds, and so on.

In casinos with higher maximum odds, you might be able to bet 10X or even 100X the size of your pass line bet. So if you bet $5 on pass at a 10X max table, you could bet $50 on the odds bet.

The payoff on this bet is based on the point that’s been set. And the payoff odds are the same as the odds of winning the bet.

• If the point is 4 or 10, the payoff is 2 to 1. The odds of winning are also 2 to 1.
• If the point is 5 or 9, the payoff is 3 to 2. The odds of winning are also 3 to 2.
• If the point is 6 or 8, the payoff is 6 to 5. The odds of winning are also 6 to 5.

Of course, the net effect of having a pass line bet and an odds bet in play at the same time is to reduce your overall house edge on the 2 bets. Here’s what the house edge looks like on the combined bet at various multiples:

• 2X Odds – 0.85%
• 3X Odds – 0.47%
• 5X Odds – 0.33%
• 10X Odds – 0.18%
• 100X Odds – 0.02%

Keep in mind, this is the house edge for the 2 bets combined. No matter how much you bet on the odds, you can never reduce the house edge to 0 or less in craps. The initial pass line bet always gives the casino an edge.

Also keep in mind that at least 1/3 of the time, the pass line bet will be resolved on the come out roll anyway. You’ll be able to take an odds bet most (2/3) of the time. But that’s not the same as being able to take the odds bet every time.

But How Do You Play a Dice Game with Playing Cards?

If I were designing a card game based version of craps, I’d just use 2 tiny decks of cards with an ace through 6 in each deck. You’d draw one card from each stack. This would give you the same potential combinations that you have in a regular craps game. There are 36 possible combinations, even though there are only 11 possible totals:

• 2 – One possible combination: 1, 1
• 3 – 2 possible combinations: 1, 2 or 2, 1
• 4 – 3 possible combinations: 1, 3 or 2, 2, or 3, 1
• 5 – 4 possible combinations: 1, 4 or 2, 3 or 3, 2 or 4, 1
• 6 – 5 possible combinations: 1, 5 or 2, 4 or 3,3 or 4, 2 or 5, 1
• 7 – 6 possible combinations: 1, 6 or 2, 5 or 3, 4 or 4, 3 or 5, 2 or 6, 1
• 8 – 5 possible combinations: 2, 6, or 3, 5 or 4, 4 or 5, 3 or 6, 2
• 9 – 4 possible combinations: 3, 6 or 4, 5 or 5, 4, or 6, 3
• 10 – 3 possible combinations: 4, 6 or 5, 5 or 6, 4
• 11 – 2 possible combinations: 5, 6 or 6, 5
• 12 – One possible combination: 6, 6

The problem with using my solution of 2 decks of 6 cards is that such a deck would be hard to shuffle. You’d also need to keep the 2 tiny decks separate from each other. That wouldn’t be impossible, but both of these challenges would require more finesse than you might be expected to need.

The casino’s solution is to use a deck of cards with 36 cards in it. Each of those cards corresponds to a specific combination of dice. This duplicates the probability you’d have with a standard craps game.

The cards used for this purpose are the ace through 9 of each of the 4 suits. The table has a card reader with a camera in it. This device recognizes the card and compares it to see which combination that card corresponds to. The boxman is the person at the craps table who handles the cards and the card reader.

The cards are dealt using a shuffling machine. Once the cards are shuffled, the boxman spreads them out across the table and uses the middle card as the determining card. Once it’s been scanned, the television screen above the table displays the animation and the result. The stickman also announces the result at the table.

All the other rules for the game are the same as for a standard craps game. I’ll cover the rest of the basics below, but if you already know how to play craps with dice, you can just skip that section and go play.

The Only Other Craps Bets Worth Making

The only craps bets I’ve covered until this point were the pass line bet and the odds bet.

But you have another good bet you can make before the come out roll. It’s called the “don’t pass” bet.

This is a bet that the shooter will fail.

It wins even money on the come out roll if the shooter fails, although a roll of 12 on the come out roll is treated as a tie (or a “push.”) A push is a situation where the bettor gets his initial bet back, but he doesn’t get any winnings.

The house edge for this bet is 1.36%.

You can lay odds on the don’t pass bet, too, but the payouts are reversed. Instead of getting 2 to 1 for the odds bet on a 4 or 10, you get 1 to 2. Instead of getting 3 to 2 for the odds bet on a 5 or 9, you get 2 to 3. And instead of getting 6 to 5 for a 6 or 8, you get 5 to 6.

Combining the don’t pass bet with the odds bet has the same effect on your house edge as combining the pass line bet with the odds bet. It reduces it dramatically.

If you bet on the pass line, you’re called a “right bettor,” but if you bet “don’t pass,” you’re called a “wrong bettor.” Most craps players prefer to bet with the shooter and the dice. Most of the other bettors at the table are doing so, and this gives you all the opportunity to root for the same result.

Also, most gamblers prefer to place bets where their payoffs are greater than the amount they bet. When laying odds, your payoff is always less than the amount you’re risking. That’s just plain uncomfortable for a lot of gamblers.

The difference of 0.05% in house edge is so negligible that it’s probably worth it to be a right bettor if you enjoy the camaraderie provided by that situation.

Those aren’t the only bets worth making, though.

You can also place bets called “come” and “don’t come” after a point has been established. These are bets that treat a roll later in the round as a new come out roll. The “come” bet is the same concept as the “pass” bet. It just comes at a different point in the round. The “don’t come” bet is the same concept as the “don’t pass” bet, too.

And you can place or lay odds with either of those bets just like you would with a pass line or don’t pass bet. The house edge for these bets are the same, too.

Those are the best bets at the craps table:

• Pass
• Don’t pass
• Come
• Don’t come
• Odds

Most of the other bets at the craps table have a much higher house edge. There’s not much point in making any of those bets, because the odds favor the house so much.

I’ll look at a random set of those bets below so you can see just how much they benefit the house.

Sucker Bets at the Craps Table

To understand why so many of the bets at the craps table are such a bad deal for the player, you need to understand a little about how the odds of winning such a bet are determined. You also need to understand that the difference between the odds of winning and the payout odds are what create the edge for the house.

“Odds” in probability are just a way of expressing how likely something is to happen. It compares the number of ways something can’t happen with the number of ways something can happen. For example, if you say the odds of winning a bet are 2 to 1, that means there are 2 ways to lose for every one way to win.

Let’s look at a real example from the craps table, though. All the bets being promoted by the stickman are proposition bets. The house edge on these bets is terrible.

One of the bets he’ll try to convince you to place is a bet on hard 8. (It could be a bet on a hard 6 or 10, either. They’re all terrible bets.)

This is a bet that the shooter will roll a total of 8 using the combination of 4, 4 (a pair) before rolling a 7. It’s a multi-roll bet. It doesn’t pay off until one of those 2 outcomes happens, regardless of how many rolls it takes for it to happen.

The odds of rolling a hard 8 before rolling a 7 are 10 to 1.

The bet pays off at 9 to 1.

To calculate the house edge, you just assume a perfect set of 11 bets. You win this bet once, and you lose it 10 times. You also assume that you’re betting $100 every time.

You’ll win $900 on the one roll where you win. And you’ll lose $1000 on the other 10 bets. That’s a net loss of $100 on 11 spins.

The average amount you’ve lost per spin is $100/11 spins or $9.09/spin.

Playing Craps With Cards

Since we were dealing with an amount of $100, it’s easy to convert that $9.09 to a percentage. It’s obviously 9.09%.

It means that every time you bet $100 on that bet, you’ll lose an average of $9.09. Compared to losing an average or $1.41, the superiority of one bet over the other is clear.

Play Craps With Cards

This huge difference between the payout odds and the odds of winning is what makes all these other bets at the craps table such a great deal for the casino. It’s also what makes them such a bad deal for the player.

If you stick with the 5 bets I suggested in the previous section, and place or lay the maximum amount on the odds bet, you’ll have more fun and more winning streaks at the craps table than you can possibly imagine.

It’s still a negative expectation game for the player, so eventually, you’ll be a net loser. It will just take longer to get there, and you’ll be likelier to have the occasional winning streak.

Conclusion

How To Win Playing Craps

Learning how to play craps with playing cards in Oklahoma casinos isn’t any harder than learning to play craps with dice in a Las Vegas casino. In fact, if you already know how to play craps with dice, you just need to understand how the results are generated using playing cards.

Best Strategy For Playing Craps

If you’re new to craps, you should still consider learning how to play. The game is too good to not play, even if the learning curve is slightly steeper because of the difference between using cards and using dice to generate results.

Playing Craps V2

If you stick with the 5 bets I mentioned earlier in this post, you’ll be facing some of the best odds in the casino.

Playing Craps Rules

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